It is known to digitize analog audio data by a process of digital coding and then replay the digital data using a decoding process. Recently, a popular trend has been towards ripping digital audio data stored on compact discs to produce compressed audio files, often in the popular MP3 format. A further advantage of ripping digital data from a commercial compact disc is that discs of this type include unique codes allowing albums to be identified such that further information, including artwork and track listings etc, may be downloaded and stored with the recoded audio data.
Acoustic fingerprinting services are also available, where it is possible for analog audio to be sampled, a fingerprint identified and data returned identifying the particular track being played. Services of this type can also identify albums upon which the track occurs and provide further information identifying the other tracks that appear on the album.
Problems occur when a particular track occurs on many albums, therefore it is not possible to identify the specific album until all of the material has been considered. In some circumstances, not all of the material may be available and it may be preferable to identify album artwork at an early stage, even if this is later found to be incorrect and alternative artwork would have been preferable. Furthermore, services of this type are prone to errors and in high value equipment, erroneous responses could undermine the integrity of a high value system.